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Summary
Summary
"A masterful and compulsively readable book that challenges our preconceived notions about a behavior often sensationalized in our culture and, until just recently, misunderstood in the scientific world." --Ian Tattersall, Curator Emeritus, American Museum of Natural History, and author of The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack
For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological significance. Its presence in nature was dismissed as a desperate response to starvation or other life-threatening circumstances, and few spent time studying it. A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism--the role it plays in evolution as well as human history--is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we've come to accept as fact.
In Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History ,zoologist Bill Schutt sets the record straight, debunking common myths and investigating our new understanding of cannibalism's role in biology, anthropology, and history in the most fascinating account yet written on this complex topic. Schutt takes readers from Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains, where he wades through ponds full of tadpoles devouring their siblings, to the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins researchers who are shedding new light on what happened to the Donner Party--the most infamous episode of cannibalism in American history. He even meets with an expert on the preparation and consumption of human placenta (and, yes, it goes well with Chianti).
Bringing together the latest cutting-edge science, Schutt answers questions such as why some amphibians consume their mother's skin; why certain insects bite the heads off their partners after sex; why, up until the end of the twentieth century, Europeans regularly ate human body parts as medical curatives; and how cannibalism might be linked to the extinction of the Neanderthals. He takes us into the future as well, investigating whether, as climate change causes famine, disease, and overcrowding, we may see more outbreaks of cannibalism in many more species--including our own.
Cannibalism places a perfectly natural occurrence into a vital new context and invites us to explore why it both enthralls and repels us.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this comprehensive account of a taboo practice, Schutt (Dark Banquet), professor of biology at LIU-Post, finds that cannibalism is more widespread than generally believed and proffers insight as to why different species resort to the practice of cannibalism, with plenty of scientific evidence to support his conclusions. Schutt covers the commonly known cannibalistic practices found among tadpoles, chimpanzees, sand tiger sharks, and polar bears, but the real intrigue is found in his descriptions of lesser-known instances of cannibalism in humans that have been actively struck from history, including during the 1941 siege of Leningrad and the medicinal cannibalism practiced by a range of European and Chinese rulers. Schutt cites starvation, overcrowding, and even global warming as reasons that humans and animals have turned to cannibalism. Depending on the culture, cannibalism has also been practiced as a learned behavior, as filial piety, as a form of luxurious indulgence, as a funerary ritual, and even as a mood stabilizer. With plenty of examples of cannibalism in humans past and present, Schutt's well researched and suspenseful work is a must read for anyone who's interested in the topic-and can stomach the gore. Illus. by Patricia J. Wynne. Agent: Gillian MacKenzie, Gillian MacKenzie Agency. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Schutt's popular history of humankind's juiciest taboo starts as you might expect, with Wisconsin's least-favorite son, Ed Gein, whose crimes inspired Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, et al. As a zoologist, however, Schutt's interests are less ghoulish (though, on this subject, all is relative), and he starts by investigating the cannibal morphs of smaller organisms and what might trigger their urge. (Spoiler: it's often a result of decreased resources.) Schutt covers too much to get too detailed but presents an impressively large smorgasbord: why stressed-out hamsters eat their young, the secret habits of T. rex, and whether breast-feeding qualifies as cannibalism, as well as offering robust looks at both the Donner Party and WWII's Chichijima incident; Robinson Crusoe's role in promulgating cultural opinions; the troubling implications of the Last Supper; and, finally, in what feels like the book's unique offering, the modern upper-middle-class fad of eating one's own placenta. This falls into the Mary Roach school of nonfiction, with Schutt presenting himself as your good-natured, joke-cracking guide, and though less salacious than expected, it's certainly a tasty tour.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2016 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, by Colson Whitehead. (Anchor, $16.95.) Whitehead's boldly inventive novel follows Cora, a slave in Georgia making her escape to freedom on a literal underground railroad. As she encounters horror after horror, the story trains an eye on aspects of black history too often co-opted by white narrators. This book, one of the Book Review's 10 best of 2016, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017. CANNIBALISM: A Perfectly Natural History, by Bill Schutt. (Algonquin, $16.95.) It wasn't just the Donner party. Cannibalism is often the rule, not the exception, for many species. Schutt's breezy tone helps keep disgust at bay, and the book is full of surprising detail: In China, for example, elites during the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) regularly feasted on humans, and the practice continued well into the late 1960s. A PIECE OF THE WORLD, by Christina Baker Kline. (William Morrow/HarperCollins, $16.99.) Kline imagines the inner life of the woman with polio crawling across a desolate field in Andrew Wyeth's iconic painting, "Christina's World." "Both painter and writer have a fine-grained feel for the setting," our reviewer, Becky Aikman, wrote. "Christina's yearning, her determination, her will to dream, occupy the emotional center in both the novel and the painting." PHENOMENA: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigation Into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis, by Annie Jacobsen. (Back Bay/Little, Brown, $17.99.) For decades, the military has tried to harness the supernatural - to find hostages, for example, or to read foreign governments' minds. Jacobsen's account is full of entertaining anecdotes; she catalogs the seers, the spoon-benders and the researchers who administered ESP tests to plants, all funded in the interest of national security. ILL WILL, by Dan Chaon. (Ballantine, $17.) This dark literary thriller deals with recovered memories, satanistic ritual and childhood trauma. Dustin, a psychologist in his 40s, is grappling with a tragic past: His parents, aunt and uncle were murdered and his adopted brother, Rusty, was convicted of the crime. But new DNA evidence helped overturn the ruling, and Rusty's exoneration stirs up long-repressed guilt and fear. MY UTMOST: A Devotional Memoir, by Macy Halford. (Vintage, $17.) "My Utmost for His Highest," a book loved by evangelicals, was central to Halford's faith when she was growing up. Years later, as her beliefs shifted, she investigated the book's origins and its author, Oswald Chambers. Her memoir is both a mediation on "a complicated nostalgia" for the faith of her childhood and an intellectual biography of Chambers.
Library Journal Review
Cannibalism has seemingly always held a place of the utmost abhorrence in human society. But why, asks Schutt (Dark Banquet; biology, LIU Post, NY; research associate, American Museum of Natural History), when cannibalism is such a normal part of nature as a whole? In a witty, often funny, and thoroughly fascinating study, Schutt delves into cannibalism as an everyday occurrence throughout the animal kingdom. Cannibalism is a biological imperative, he argues, that is brought about by environmental stress factors. For example, there is a species of fish whose female gives birth to thousands and thousands of baby fish, only to eat most of them in order to replenish nutrients lost from the act of giving birth. The author also explores the human history of cannibalism and how it became such a taboo in our society-culminating in the most famous case in U.S. history: the tragic case of the Donner party. VERDICT Schutt's writing is delightfully accessible, rarely boring, and utterly captivating. A must-buy for high school and public libraries.-Tyler Hixson, School Library Journal © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Prologue | p. ix |
| 1 Animal the Cannibal | p. 1 |
| 2 Go On, Eat the Kids | p. 21 |
| 3 Sexual Cannibalism, or Size Matters | p. 35 |
| 4 Quit Crowding Me | p. 52 |
| 5 Bear Down | p. 62 |
| 6 Dinosaur Cannibals? | p. 69 |
| 7 File Under: Weird | p. 78 |
| 8 Neanderthals and the Guys in the Other Valley | p. 84 |
| 9 Columbus, Caribs, and Cannibalism | p. 99 |
| 10 Bones of Contention | p. 109 |
| 11 Cannibalism and the Bible | p. 123 |
| 12 The Worst Party Ever | p. 133 |
| 13 Eating People Is Bad | p. 174 |
| 14 Eating People Is Good | p. 195 |
| 15 Chia Skulls and Mummy Powder | p. 207 |
| 16 Placenta Helper | p. 219 |
| 17 Cannibalism in the Pacific Islands | p. 243 |
| 18 Mad Cows and Englishmen | p. 263 |
| 19 Acceptable Risk | p. 275 |
| Epilogue: One Step Beyond | p. 287 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 297 |
| Notes | p. 300 |
| Recommended Books on Cannibalism and Related Topics | p. 328 |